Super Size Me
Directed by Morgan Spurlock
- documentary
The story
Morgan Spurlock subjects himself to a diet based only on McDonald's fast food three times a day for thirty days without exercising to try to prove why so many Americans are fat or obese. He submits himself to a complete check-up by three doctors, comparing his weight along the way, resulting in a scary conclusion.
What it’s like
Shot in the handheld, talking-head style of a personal documentary, with Morgan Spurlock often framed in his own kitchen, car and hospital corridors under flat fluorescent light, and interstitial animated graphics, cartoon-bright and pop-coloured, cutting in to tally calories and sugar. The overall look is rough and immediate rather than polished: small digital images, warm home-video softness, and a lot of fast-food red and yellow filling the frame. The score is jaunty and percussive, a bouncy mock-corporate soundtrack that sits against the growing unease of his body changing. It moves briskly, with a clear sense of escalation as each week's check-up reveals a new number, and the mood swings between wry, prankish comedy and quiet alarm. Its intensity is mild in the sense of violence and sexuality (there is none), but the subject is bodily harm: nausea, mood swings, and visibly worsening health are shown and discussed directly, and some medical footage is uncomfortable to watch. It suits a curious evening with friends or a considered night in rather than a gentle wind-down. Made for viewers interested in food politics, nutrition and documentary experiments who don't mind a provocative, slightly self-mocking tone.
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